Dragons coach Anthony Griffin brands Jack de Belin ‘a good person and a good leader’

The Dragons coach has dubbed Jack de Belin a “good person and a good leader” after the club reportedly considered naming him captain.

Jack de Belin hitting the ball up during his NRL return for the Dragons against the Broncos during their round 13 game at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Dragons coach Anthony Griffin has dubbed Jack de Belin a “good person and a good leader” after reports emerged that St George considered naming him team captain for Sunday afternoon’s game against the Sydney Roosters.

The NRL community reacted with disbelief after The Sydney Morning Herald reported Griffin was thinking about giving de Belin the armband, but club officials opposed the idea and instead put the “C” next to Tariq Sims’ name on the team sheet.

In May, the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew sexual assault charges against de Belin and co-accused Callan Sinclair following two District Court trials that ended in hung juries. Both men consistently maintained they were innocent and had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Two months later, de Belin was alleged to have misled Dragons officials about his involvement in a BBQ at former teammate Paul Vaughan’s house that broke NSW Covid-19 regulations, resulted in $305,000 worth of fines handed out to players and saw Vaughan’s contract ripped up.

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Fox League commentator Andrew Voss was among those who questioned how Griffin could consider making de Belin captain after these off-field scandals.

“I can’t believe anyone who betrayed the trust of the club this season could possibly be considered for the ‘C’ next to their name any game before the end of this year, but we’re being told Jack de Belin was,” Voss said on SEN Radio’s Breakfast with Vossy.

Daily Telegraph rugby league writer David Riccio continued: “Footy clubs do some funny things. They really do. Maybe it’s the air within the bubble that’s confusing the Dragons staff at the moment.

“How did they consider this? Given everything Jack de Belin has dragged that club through.

“Even the hit with a feather that he copped in relation to being involved with the Paul Vaughan BBQ, it’s just impossible to understand how they could consider making Jack de Belin captain.”

Jack de Belin of the Dragons.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday afternoon, Griffin denied claims de Belin was named co-captain on the official team list initially submitted to the NRL on Tuesday.

“Tuesday afternoon we ran through a few names and (the media) made a story out of it,” Griffin said.

“But Jack is a good person and a good leader in our group. Tariq Sims will be our captain tomorrow and it’s a great honour for him.

“I don’t know where the story came from. When we lost Andrew McCullough there was probably four or five guys that could be captains of the side.”

Griffin said he has been impressed with de Belin’s performances since he was sidelined for almost three years under the NRL’s no-fault stand down rule.

“Considering he had almost three years out of the game his first few performances, which were only for 30 or 40 minutes, were of really high quality,” Griffin said.

“He went through a little bit of stage there where the return to football got to him. But the last few weeks, to play at the standard he has, I’ve been really surprised and impressed.”

Dragons coach Anthony Griffin.

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The Dragons have suffered six consecutive defeats since the infamous barbecue saga, and their finals chances are practically zero following Sunday’s 40-22 loss to the Roosters.

Superstar fullback James Tedesco and teenage super-sub Sam Walker took it upon themselves to get the Roosters back into the top four and set up a mouth-watering showdown with arch enemies the Rabbitohs next week.

Tedesco ran riot in Toowoomba behind a pack that was brilliantly led by Jared Waerea-Hargreaves to set up three tries in the first half.

Walker came off the bench in the second half to set up Daniel Tupou and score the match-sealing try after the Dragons had launched a stunning comeback.

“We’ve shown for four to six weeks that no matter the situation they have been quite good and going ‘Ok, what do we need to be better?’ The leaders spread that energy around and then the others are calm,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.

“I was impressed with the senior guys and the younger guys.

“I’ve got (three) good young experienced halves and I felt like today was the day for a shift to get Lachy in there. I’ll keep making a choice around that. All three of them will be playing a lot of footy.”

– with NCA NewsWire